Half-dragon (starting race)

Half-dragons are a playable race that appear in dNetHack and notdNetHack.

Properties

• Half-dragons may be Anachrononauts, Archeologists, Barbarians, Binders, Cavepeople, Convicts, Knights, Monks, Madmen, Nobles, Priests, Rogues, Rangers, Samurais, Bards (Troubadours) or Wizards.
• Half-dragons can be of any alignment.
• Half-dragons have a draconic breath weapon selected at game start, usable via #ability
  • The breath is randomly selected from fire, cold, lightning, poison, acid, sleep. Female half-dragon Nobles will instead get either cold or magic with equal odds, and half-dragon Madmen will get a random breath attack ala shimmering dragons if they're female or fire if they're male.
  • It costs 15 energy to use, does not burn nutrition, and does not suffer from spell failure.
  • Base damage is (1+(XL/3))d6 damage. This can be upgraded by wearing dragon scale armor that matches your breath weapon, by 50% per matching armor piece worn. For example, a half-dragon with acid breath will get 50% extra damage with their breath while wearing yellow dragon scale mail, or double damage if wearing both mail and a shield.
  • You are granted full immunity to your own breath weapon, which permanently grants the appropriate resistance. This does grant permanent intrinsic magic resistance with magical breath, and does not grant anything to male Madmen who have a randomly varying breath attack. This also grants full intrinsic immunity, rather than just resistance, for fire, cold and lightning bearing half-dragons, which fully negates primordial elemental attacks compared to the halved damage they normally deal through resistances. Lightning half-dragons are not immune to being blinded "by the flash" caused by being hit with a lightning bolt.
  • From 14th level, your breath weapon counts as true dragonbreath, so it cannot be reflected by ordinary reflection, only dragonbreath reflection. The exception is if a half-dragon Madwoman's random breath weapon becomes disintegration breath, in which case it can be reflected as usual.
• Half-dragons gain 1 bonus AC per 6 levels (starting at level 3), and 1 bonus natural DR per 6 levels (starting at level 6).
• Half-dragons are slower than normal (base speed 8 instead of speed 12).
• Half-dragons gain a bonus to bare-handed and martial arts damage from their claws - they have triple dice size, so they'll deal 1d6 damage instead of 1d2, or 1d12 instead of 1d4 with martial arts
• Half-dragons are counted as dragons for cannibalism and same-race sacrifice purposes.
• Half-dragons gain intrinsic flying at 14th level. ("You feel wings sprout from your back!")
• Half-dragons will start with a pet tiny pseudodragon instead of the standard domestic pet, and the pseudodragon also shares the relevant breath attack/resistance.
  • Half-dragon Knights start with a saddled pet riding pseudodragon, which is 2 steps of growth older and can be ridden.
• Half-dragon Madmen and female half-dragon Nobles are more humanoid than other half-dragons.
  • This increases their base speed to 12, and modifies their maximum attributes:
    • Half-dragon Madmen can reach 18 dexterity.
    • Female half-dragon Nobles can reach 20 dexterity, but they can only reach 20 strength and 18 constitution.
  • They get less bonus AC and DR: 1 bonus AC per 15 levels (starting at level 10), and 1 bonus AC per 15 levels (starting at level 15).
  • Flavor-wise, male half-dragon Madmen are half-red-dragon, half-githyanki, female half-dragon Madwomen are half-chaos-dragon, half-githzerai, and female half-dragon Nobles are the more-human-looking variety of Dark Souls half-dragon.
• Being half-dragon is a mystical status, not just a physical condition, and so half-dragons retain their special abilities while polymorphed, and conversely other characters cannot polymorph into half-dragons.
• Half-dragon Bards start with an extra 30 energy. Half-dragon Madmen start with exactly 10 energy. All other half-dragons start with exactly 15 energy.
• Half-dragon Bards know martial arts, and from 14th level they can sing elementals into being.
• Female half-dragons can all train the farm implement weapon skill to Expert level, and their first sacrifice gift is always The Lifehunt Scythe (overriding any other first sacrifice gift their role may have).

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (dNetHack). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

In 3.23.0, the half-dragon's base speed is increased to 9, and level 15+ half-dragons get the secondary intrinsics from their corresponding color of dragon scales: Chaos dragons still get nothing at level 1, but get displacement and see invisible at level 15. From level 1, blue (lightning) half-dragons also get blindness resistance. Red dragons get +2 dice to their breath weapon at level 14, and grow bigger and stronger at level 15, gaining 120% carrycap and +2 to strength dbon. Sleep breath becomes hallucinogenic (confusing and berserking non-sleep-resistant monsters) at level 15.

Female half-dragons only get The Lifehunt Scythe as their first sacrifice gift if their role does not already have a first sacrifice gift, or if they are a Noble, but still unrestrict the farm implement skill regardless.

The following information pertains to an upcoming version (notdNetHack). If this version is now released, please verify that it is still accurate, then update the page to incorporate this information.

Half-dragon Anachrononauts get a disintegration breath weapon, and any half-dragon with multiple possible breath types can choose between them at character creation, instead of receiving one randomly.

Stats

Character race	Strength	Dexterity	Constitution	Intelligence	Wisdom	Charisma
Half-dragon	25	10	20	20	20	20